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| www.calguns.net 1000 rounds of M855 - 3/3/2015 |
Ask yourself a question..
Did you go out and purchase 1000+ rounds of .223/5.56 this past week? Have you been constantly lurking Slickguns and Wikiarms to snatch up all of the ammo deals? If yes is the answer to either of these questions then YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.
Okay... if you are one of these people you are probably asking yourself what the problem is. You might even be thinking that everyone who isn't out buying all of the ammo they can is an idiot because 'they are going to ban all of the .223/5.56 ammunition.'
First of all...
Yes, the ATF did propose a ban on M855, but did you catch the keyword there? Proposed! Nothing is banned yet people! But the ban was proposed only for those lovely green tips everyone is talking about. So, why are you buying up all of the other ammunition? If you think that the government is going to ban all forms of .223/5.56 then you are incredibly mistaken. Ammunition prices are skyrocketing and the gougers have reared their ugly faces on GunBroker and Armslist. I am more than convinced that half of the ammo hoarders are buying up only to resell at double, the already doubled, prices. These people can buy all of the M855 they want, but please leave us rational shooters out of it. The reason that this ammunition was even popular is because it is (was) relatively cheap, brass cased ammunition to shoot. It is accurate too! Other than that, it isn't any big thing. If you watch any ballistics testing on it you will see that the terminal ballistics on it are lousy due to the fact that it will pass directly through soft tissue. This is why the military doesn't even use it anymore. After those prices were up and the ammo was sold out, XM193 ammo felt the cold grubby hands of the masses. The price rose on that until they were out of stock everywhere. Next up was the steel cased stuff. I guarantee people who completely hated steel cased ammo now have thousands of rounds sitting in their houses. Even worse! People are, for some reason, taking this as an opportunity to panic buy 7.62x39 as well. That round has absolutely nothing to do with this ban!
Let me teach you some basic economics...
Supply and demand is a cold hard fact of life. It is the backbone of market economy and very important for everyone to learn and understand. You remember .22LR ammunition? Well, some of you may not since it is still very difficult to find, but panic buying contributed to this situation with .22. If you don't stop buying up all of the .223/5.56 it is going to happen again.
Above is a general supply and demand graph. Notice the supply curve, the demand curve, the price as the Y axis, and the quantity as the X axis. When all is well the equilibrium is located in a stable area that corresponds to a price consumers are willing to pay, and the quantity needed to satisfy the people. When panic buying starts, the demand is increased causing a rightward shift of the demand curve. As you can picture, this causes the equilibrium to rise higher up resulting in an increased price, as well as; an increase in the quantity needed. Ammunition manufacturers can only make so much ammo per year. Although this number is huge, it can quickly be depleted by a hungry American public. Especially with a craze like this. Watching Sportsman's Guide today I noticed that they had 900 available shipments of 500 pack Wolf .223. That is 450,000 rounds. Within 10-15 minutes this quantity was converted to 0. That is insanity! Eventually, if the buyers keep buying the over priced product, the quantity needed will be greater than the manufacturers can supply and then we have a .22LR situation all over again.
More about the ban...
If you are worried about the ban, and bringing up the ban of imported 5.45x39 ammunition as an example, you need to realize that these are two totally different animals. 5.45x39 was easily banned from import because nobody did anything about it. It is not a very popular round by the American public. Also, they banned the Russian steel core ammunition they said they would, but we can still easily get non steel core ammunition, such as Red Army Standard and Tula. Yes the price increased a bit, but it is still accessible for anyone wanting it. That would be the worst case scenario in this instance too. Yes, they could try and ban other forms of .223/5.56 in the future, but they would have an even harder time with it, and there is no evidence that this is their immediate motive.
The ATF is accepting comments and opinions on the ban, and I am sure that they are being bombarded with hundreds of thousands of letters and calls. This is quite different than the previous ban. The NRA and the American people are raged up about this, as we should be, and we still have power. We still have rights. Not everyone in government positions are for this ban either. Obama and the ATF don't have the power alone to ban green tips. This is the reason there are three branches of government, to provide power checks to the others. Last I heard, Congress and most republican lawmakers are not too keen on this idea, as with most of Obama's decisions... because they don't really like him too much.
I still haven't mentioned that the original ban on AP ammo was for pistol cartridges... specifically, cartridges made originally for a pistol... which rifle rounds are not. Besides, these are not even defined as AP rounds by the military, or by federal law. To be defined as such a bullet must have a solid metal core of steel, tungsten, or similar metals. These green tips are steel tipped, not cored. Also, sporting rounds are exempt. This ammo is one of the most popular sporting rounds available.
In conclusion,
I will be genuinely surprised if this ammo is banned. Even if it is, you will still be able to buy up all the non green tip ammo you want. So please, let us stop panic buying to prevent another .22LR situation. Go to the store, buy a few boxes to shoot and a few to stock, and please leave some for the rest of the shoppers. Also, write the ATF if you have not already. If it is banned you will have no right to complain if you have not stated your opinion.
Share this everywhere you can (by clicking the share buttons to the right) to prevent the disappearance of this wonderful round off the shelves of stores. If not for that reason, then do it to stop the price gougers. Also, navigate through my other blogs (to the right) as I will be updating all the time with gun reviews and rants such as this.
UPDATE:
Many of you may have heard that the ATF has already banned M855 ammunition on the down low without anyone knowing about it. Here is a statement from their website claiming that this is a publishing error, and that no decisions have been officially made yet.
ATF- Publishing Error
Also, many politicians have gone so far as to propose legislation to dissolve the ATF altogether.
Dissolving the ATF
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